Why Can't We Make U.S. Grads U.S. Citizens?

An immigration system that allows foreign students to earn advanced math and science degrees at U.S. universities but refuses to let them work in the country after graduation is counterproductive and will serve only to advance the current innovation brain drain, according to a Tuesday panel of tech experts.

An immigration system that allows foreign students to earn advanced math and science degrees at U.S. universities but refuses to let them work in the country after graduation is counterproductive and will serve only to advance the current innovation brain drain, according to a Tuesday panel of tech experts.

"Over 50 percent of post-graduate degrees are given to foreign nationals," said Don Rosenberg, general counsel and executive vice president at Qualcomm. "It's just insane to educate these people here and tell them they can't stay here and join the companies here we are all trying to support."

"The fact that you could get a degree from MIT and not become immediately a permanent U.S. citizen is crazy," said Brad Feld, managing director of the Foundry Group, a venture capital firm.

Rosenberg and Feld joined Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, and others at a technology innovation panel hosted by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Immigration reform has sparked heated debates in Congress, but a subset of that issue is the issuance of H-1B visas, which allow foreigners with specialized skills to work in the United States for a certain amount of time. The U.S. only issues 65,000 of these visas annually, however, and they are usually snapped up immediately. Members of Congress have introduced bills that would increase the number of H-1B visas, but none have seen any major action.

"I'm very worried about getting good people," said Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chief executive of EchoStar. "Our immigration policy is where we should be selfish as a country and get the best and brightest." Intel chairman Craig Barrett has alsoworried about improving the quality of American students, and thus American employees.

In May, Lofgren introduced a bill, H.R. 6039, that would grant green cards to foreigners who earn a masters or PhD from an American university in science, technology, engineering, or math and receive a job offer from an U.S. company.

Lofgren had difficulty securing the support of Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, she said. They agreed to a version of the bill that would put a cap on the number of green cards issued to graduating students "but I don't want to put a quota on the number of PhD's who are going to stay in the U.S.," Lofgren said.

"If we provide permanent [residency] to people who are top-notch graduates, that would solve a lot of our [H-1B] problems," Lofgren said. "In Silicon Valley, about 80 percent of H-1B visa holders are graduates of American universities."

William Kennard, who served as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman from 1997 to 2001 and is now a managing director at the Carlyle Group, said that the majority of new hires at Carlyle are coming from overseas.

"It gives me a great sense of pride that we're welcoming these folks" to the United States, but in the same respect, "we need to create opportunities for kids in the U.S.," Kennard said. The quality of math and science education in this country is "embarrassing. We can't talk about immigration reform without talking about investment in the future" of our own children.

"If we want to give Obama the ability for change, we have to recognize the political constraints," Kennard warned.

What about patents?

Another piece of the puzzle, panelists said, is the current state of the U.S. patent system.

"The idea that you can patent something that you haven't even created yet" is ridiculous, Feld said. "I am fervently anti-software patents."

"I do believe there is a need for patent reform [but] U.S. intellectual property patents are the gold standard in the world," said Qualcomm's Rosenberg. "Reform has to be in the Patent Office itself; adding resources, but not necessarily doing many of the things [current patent legislation] focused on, like changes to how damages are calculated."

Lofgren was confident that patent  and immigration  reform would be addressed fully when Congress reconvenes under a new administration in January.

"We had a patent bill. Not to say it was a perfect bill, but we sent it out of the House with the belief that the Senate would do further refinements and instead they collapsed," she said. "So we will be starting again next year."

Ergen said he had mixed emotions regarding patent reform, given the numerous patent battles he has gone after at EchoStar.

"I'd like to see the loser pay in any kind of patent case, so if you want to sue us and you lose, you're paying our defense bill," Ergen said. "But I think it's tough because we're on both sides. We'll spend $10 million to fight a case that somebody would've settled for $100,000 because someone needs to do it."

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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